Many people are surprised to learn I’m a Trader (Retail Investor). I don’t fit the stereotype of a male in a business suit who works on Wall Street. In reality, many average people like me trade online from the comfort of their homes. Most people think Trading is easy money, but it involves a lot of hard work. Successful people do not necessarily accomplish their goals quickly, so the same applies to Trading.
I am often asked if one needs a financial degree to Trade. To succeed in Trading, you only need “GRIT.” It takes a special kind of person to succeed in Trading. You must be able to handle setbacks and defeat and not give up. It would be best if you are determined to reach your goals and persevere until you get there. You must be willing to put in the work but I promise you it’s worth it!
I started studying how to Trade about six years ago. I went to a Trading school called Learn To Trade in 2017. My Trading journey was not a straight road to success but rather a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. Learning to be a successful Retail Investor, I had to put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Looking back at my Trading journey, I realize I have learned many lessons.
How I Became Interested in Trading
I was advised to get a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) at my first corporate job after college. Most working Canadians invest in RRSPs (like the United States 401K) to save for retirement. I knew nothing about financial investments as this was not taught in school. However, I saw my bank advertising RRSPs and so I spoke with the bank’s Financial Specialist.
This person suggested I get mutual funds, and a financial professional would look after a mixture of stocks for me. What he didn’t tell me was that I was getting charged high commission fees to have someone “manage” my investments. And so, for years without knowing, I paid high commission fees for my mutual funds.
I presumed that paying someone to manage my financial portfolio protected me from losing money, but I was wrong. There was a financial crash in 2008, and I was alarmed to see my mutual funds drop over 40% almost overnight! I was saving money by bringing my lunch to work and buying things on sale so I could put money into my retirement account, only to see almost half of it disappear. I went to see the bank’s Financial Specialist, and he said that everyone who invested in the markets had lost money, and many people lost a lot more than I did, and I should be thankful that I didn’t lose that much. His response made me livid. Here I was, living frugally by skipping out on fancy dinners and vacations and instead putting the money into my retirement savings, only to see it was all for nothing. My experience at the bank taught me to never rely on someone else to manage my money.
I realized that I would be better off monitoring my investments rather than relying on someone else to do it for me. What was the point of paying the bank high commission fees if they could still lose my money? I started researching investments and discovered that I could open a Trading account to buy individual stocks. Trading accounts were not that popular in 2009, and I had to do a lot of research. What motivated me to put in the work and read about Trading accounts was that I never wanted to rely on someone investing my hard-earned money ever again! Using fundamental analysis, I began buying blue-chip stocks that paid dividends in my Trading account.
Trading School
Over the next few years, I was making some profit with my blue-chip stocks. One day, a co-worker, Grant (pseudonym), told me that he went to a Trading school and was starting to become profitable at trading stocks. Grant said the Trading school was teaching Options, Forex, and Futures. He said he wanted to make a living by investing because he didn’t want to work at a corporate job for the rest of his life. I had no idea what Options, Forex, and Futures were, but the Trading program sounded very interesting. Grant told me the Trading school was called Learn To Trade (LTT) and is in our city.
I had taught myself some basic fundamental analysis but wanted to learn more complex investing techniques. I called LTT and spoke to a man named George. George had over 30 years of experience in Trading and even worked in the pit of the Chicago Board of Trade before they went digital. George seemed passionate about teaching, so I joined the LTT program https://learn-to-trade.com.
George Karpouzis (LTT Educator) and me – George taught me a lot on Financial Education and Trading
Options Trading
The Trading program had a 3-day course on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Trading Program gave me a lot of information about Stocks, Options, Forex, Futures, and Technical Analysis in the first few days. Getting all this information at once was overwhelming. I went into the Trading program thinking I would become an expert in a few days but quickly realized it would take a lot of work.
LTT also gave online tutorials on different investment topics. I would study the tutorials every day to learn what I could about trading. After six months of studying technical analysis and Options, I decided to try trading Options. The first mistake I made when trading Options was not using a demo account. Although LTT advised students to test a trading idea before using real money (backtesting), I ignored their advice because I was impatient to start making money. Although I studied for months and months, I did not see any rewards for all that work. I was beginning to feel anxious about not making money in Trading yet, and I started pressuring myself to succeed.
I lost money and blew my account in less than a month. Right after I blew my account, I met an elderly lady at the grocery store who told me she had a hard time scrubbing her floors due to her age. She tried scrubbing her floors quickly but would get frustrated as it was hard work. Then her friend told her to “slow it down to speed it up.” She started taking her time scrubbing the floors and found it much easier to do the job.
Slow down to speed up. I started thinking about how I had to go to university for four years to become an engineer. Every profession requires a certain amount of schooling. I started treating Trading as a profession, not a hobby. I had a perception that Trading was easy money due to many false advertisements online. For every real, successful Trader offering coaching services, thousands of fake ones made empty promises of easy money. I realized that I would have an easier time learning how to trade if I stopped putting pressure on myself. Traders who are not in a hurry to succeed typically learn how to trade more easily.
Introduction to S&P CFDs Trading
After blowing my Options Trading account, I felt like a complete failure. My dreams of becoming a successful Trader so that I could leave my corporate job were dashed before my eyes. I went into a deep depression and stopped studying the Trading tutorials. I gave up Trading and felt lost about what to do next. While feeling stuck, an LTT student named Joseph messaged me. The LTT program held monthly meetings that all their students could attend and discuss Trading with each other. I met Joseph at one of the LTT meetings, and we would sometimes discuss Options ideas. Joseph asked me if I wanted to learn to trade the S&P (Standard and Poor’s 500). He offered to show me what he had learned so far. I figured I had nothing to lose at this point. Joseph showed me how to trade CFDs (contract for difference) on a Trading platform called MetaTrader, and I immediately enjoyed day trading more than I did Options trading. I became interested in trading again and began practicing trading the S&P daily. Joseph was kind enough to offer a few hours of his time to share some of his knowledge with me when I needed encouragement the most. I discovered one of my favorite lessons on my trading journey in my darkest hour: Be kind to others. A small amount of your time and effort can make a huge difference in another person’s life.
Introduction to Fibonacci and a Trading Coach
I practiced trading the S&P for a few months but was not using any indicators. I was getting random wins but didn’t have a specific strategy. I needed to develop a Trading plan. Then one day, an LTT student mentioned a Trading Coach who used Fibonacci levels (used to identify reversal and extension points in a trade). I decided to try learning Fibonacci with a Trading Coach named Carol (pseudonym). Carol ran a Trading group chat where she would post her charts every morning, including her Fibonacci lines.
My first challenge was learning the basics, such as drawing Fibonacci lines (Fibs) on candlesticks. I was overwhelmed at the beginning as I wasn’t sure if I was drawing the Fibs correctly. Carol only traded the morning session and was not around in the afternoon to answer my questions. Many of the students followed her lead and only traded the morning session as well. I wanted to practice as much as possible, so I would watch price movement and draw Fibs all afternoon.
I felt alone in the afternoons when the other students and Carol weren’t in the Trading room group chat. But I kept at it every day from early morning until late afternoon, drawing Fibs based on price movement. Even when I wasn’t sure if I drew the Fibs right or fully understood the context of the day, I would watch price movement and practice trading anyway. After a while, I noticed how Price used the Fib levels for support and resistance. I was also getting quicker at drawing Fibs. My hard work started paying off as I began getting good at drawing Fibs. Carol would post her Fib lines on different time frame charts every morning, and I noticed that I was drawing the same Fib lines as hers.
Practicing the S&P Excessively
Every day for over a year, I would practice drawing Fibs and watching price movement. I sat for hours staring at my charts, from the morning open until the market close, watching price movement. I began seeing a trend on where to initiate trades and where to set targets using the Fib levels. When the markets were closed on the weekends, I would use historical data to backtest Trades. In Carol’s group chat, she would sometimes give a nugget of information on Price Action or trading that I would write down in my Trading notes. I kept a journal documenting all my Trades. It was like I was learning a new language on how the S&P speaks. I became obsessed with trading the S&P.
My favorite guitarist is Slash from Guns N Roses. Slash was my guitar hero as a teenager, and I remember reading as a kid that he would practice playing guitar for 12 hours a day! His life revolved around playing guitar, eating, and sleeping. I learned at a young age to practice hard at anything that I wanted to get good at. Slash greatly influenced me—put your heart and soul into anything you want to pursue. If you want to be the best at anything, whether playing guitar, basketball, trading, etc., you must practice it a lot. If you want to get good at Trading, practice excessively.
Discovering my Trading Edge and Plan
Although I figured out where to take trades and where to close targets using the Fib levels, I still had to figure out my Trading Plan. How many Contracts should I trade? What Stop Loss should I have? Once I’m in a trade, how do I manage it to take profits?
I was trading using a Stop Loss of 3.5 points but was getting Stopped Out often. Then, one of the LTT students mentioned he wasn’t even using a Stop Loss. Yes, that’s right, no Stop Loss! I was Trading small lots of the S&P CFDs and decided to try no Stop Loss (bad idea). It didn’t take long for me to blow my account. Although the losses were not that much on small lots, it was still a blow to me psychologically as this still represented a failure on my part. I should have tested my no Stop Loss plan on a demo account and to journal all the Trades. I was using real money on S&P CFDs when I wasn’t ready – similar to what I had done with Options.
I was disappointed in myself because I should have known better to backtest first. If I continued on this road of recklessly chasing money, I would lose even more. From that point on, I embraced backtesting and took my time figuring out my Trading Plan on a demo account. It took me another year to backtest and journal all my Trades on a demo account. Then, I gathered all my stats to determine what my Stop Loss and Take Profits should optimally be. My Trading Plan took a long time to develop, but I felt confident because I had all my stats to back it up. One of the most important lessons I learned from Trading: Don’t chase after the money. Stop focusing on the outcome (money) and just focus on the process (learning to Trade).
My Struggle with Trading Psychology
With over a year of backtesting and a Trading Plan in place, I felt confident to trade the ES Futures. However, I was unprepared for the emotions I would struggle with. Many of us go through different emotions when we start using our hard-earned money to Trade. Below is an overview of some of my behavior:
- Forcing Trades
- Chasing Trades
- Revenge Trading
- Scarcity (leaving money on the table)
- Perfectionism
- Overconfidence
I mastered using Fibs and reading Price Action, but I still needed to work on trading psychology. To make matters worse, after tackling one issue, another behavioral issue would show up. For example, in the beginning, I was forcing and chasing Trades. Once I finally controlled those emotions, I started revenge Trading. It was a never-ending struggle to be in control of my mental game.
There were countless days when I could recognize an Uptrend or Downtrend day, yet all my trades were still losses. I would look back at the end of the day and realize that most of my losing trades resulted from not controlling my emotions. Then, I blew my account again due to not controlling my emotions.
I started researching Trading psychology and repeatedly read the book “Trading in the Zone” by Mark Douglas. Although this book did help me with some of my emotions, I still felt I would go on tilt whenever I had a losing Trade. Revenge Trading was the hardest behavioral issue that I could control. Although I had profitable days, I had huge losses on days when I had one losing Trade. Instead of moving on without having the losing Trade affect me, I would automatically take another Trade with no setup and would end up with double the losses.
Trading in the Zone
After blowing my account because of my emotions, I realized I needed to fix my Trading psychology, or I would never succeed. I started looking within and digging into my beliefs and how they affect my behavior as a Trader. I realized some of my beliefs stemmed from how I grew up and that these beliefs did not serve me anymore. Once I let go of these negative false beliefs, I became a much better Trader.
Affirmations and meditation were also a real game changer for me. Every morning before Trading, I would write out my affirmations. I also meditate using my essential oils for about 15 minutes before Trading. Meditation helps me get into the zone to Trade, and I noticed that I was less in control of my emotions on days that I skipped meditating.
Professional athletes train to be in the zone when they play a game. I researched and found that NBA legends like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan meditated to develop mindfulness. Meditation helps calm and clear your mind of distractions. You stop worrying if you are going to have a losing Trade. Meditation keeps you focused on what you have to do in the present moment. Meditation helped Jordan and Kobe win championships, and meditation can also help Traders succeed.
Never Give Up on Yourself
I’m proud to report that after many setbacks, I overcame the challenges and became a successful Trader! I have outlined some lessons I learned on my journey to becoming a Daytrader in this Blog, but the most important lesson I learned is to never give up. Whatever your dream—athlete, musician, Trader, etc., it’s important to not let setbacks stop you from pursuing your dreams. Learn from your failures and try a different approach to achieve your dreams. But never give up on yourself.
Business Coaching with Rose Excellence
There were many times I felt lost on my Trading journey. I could have succeeded a lot faster with more hands-on coaching and guidance. I created a Business Coaching program to help new students learn financial investments more quickly than I did without going through the struggles I went through.
I often felt alone on my Trading journey, so I created a Discord group for retail investors to discuss ideas with each other. I believe there’s strength in numbers, and I want to build a community for retail investors to provide support and help one another. You will have better success in Trading by learning with others than by yourself. Traders can join my Discord group at this link:
If you would like to learn more about my Business Coaching program, feel free to email RoseExcellenceCoach@gmail.com, and we will chat.
Thank you,
Rose 🌹